IB Eng 11: Literary Terms to Know

Allegory

story within a story

Allusion

reference to something else

Alter ego

secondary self

Anecdote

very short story that is significant to the topic at hand

Antagonist

opposite of the protagonist, or main character

Anthropomorphism

giving human traits or attributes to animals, inanimate objects or other non-human things

Antithesis

opposite of a statement, concept, or idea

Archetype

an idea, symbol, pattern, or character-type in a story

Bildungsroman

tale in which the main character transforms from child to adult, or at least some major steps in that direction

Characterization

any time the author uses details to teach us about a person

Climax

the highest point of tension or drama in a narratives' plot

Comic Relief

jokes to ease the burden of difficult circumstances

Connotation

a feeling or idea that a word has, in addition to its literal or main meaning

Denouement

very end of a story, the part where all the different plotlines are finally tied up and all remaining questions are answered

Deuteragonist

secondary character, right behind the protagonist in importance

Dialect

any particular form of a language spoken by some group of people

Doppelganger

twin or double of some character, usually in the form of an evil twin

Dramatic Irony

when the audience knows something the characters don't

Dystopia

horrible place where everything has gone wrong

Epilogue

optional final chapter of a story

Extended Metaphor

metaphor that is developed in great detail

Irony

the difference between expectations and reality

Juxtaposition

placement of two or more things side by side, often in order to bring out their differences

Motif

symbolic image or idea that appears frequently in a story

Nemesis

an enemy

Parody

work that's created by imitating an existing original work in order to make fun of or comment on an aspect of the original

Protagonist

another word for "main charcter"

Satire

the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices

Trope

any type of figure of speech, theme, image, character or plot element that is used many times

Verisimilitude

the quality of resembling reality